Stand by You

XXXIII

It was mid-morning and Edward, Greeling, Darius, Heinkel, and I arrived in some rural village on the search of Hohenheim. According to some information provided by Winry, he was last seen residing here so we decided to check this place out first. The people were milling about, minding their own business and getting what they needed to do done. Edward walked up to one man to was shoveling the dirt and asked, "Excuse me, is this Kanama?"

The man nodded and Edward explained the situation to him. He stopped digging and offered to help us, which we accepted. He lead us to a small campfire where a blonde man was roasting his food over it. "Mr. Ho," The man who offered to help us called. "You got a visitor."

The man turned around and I got to see his face. He strikingly resemble Father, but he wasn't Father. It was Hohenheim, the real Hohenheim. He and Edward locked eyes for a few seconds before Hohenheim put down what he was roasting, stood up and held his hand out for a shake. "It's nice to see you again Edwa--" He started before Edward punched him across the face.

Hohenheim flew back a few feet before sliding across the ground on his back, stopped with his legs up in the air. Edward turned back around to us, rubbing his metal fist. "Ah, that felt good," He said.

I had a dumbfounded expression on my face and held my hands out in a confused manner, about to speak up and question Edward but Hohenheim cut in. "You didn't have to haul off and slug me out of nowhere, you know!" He groaned, sitting up and rubbing where Edward had punched him. "And with your right hand too!"

Edward turned around, making a 'hmph' noise. Hohenheim stood up and brushed the dirt and dust off his legs. "You've made some new friends," He glanced before looking up and taking in who we were. "Whoa..."

"It just works out that we're all in the same boat," Heinkel objected.

"And incidentally, I'm the boss of these guys," Greed smirked as he scratched the base of his neck.

"I'm just Ed's bodyguard," I raised my hand, adding on to the introduction.

"Well, well," Hohenheim approached Greeling and I. "Thank you both for looking after my son."

"Not at all," Greeling humbly accepted.

"Doin' my job," I gave him a thumbs-up.

"And a damn sassy son he is," Greeling added with a smirk.

"Shut up!" Edward jabbed at him.

Hohenheim scanned Greeling and his eyes fell on a distinctive tattoo on his hand. "That's an unusual tattoo," He remarked.

"Ah, this?" Greeling lifted his hand up that had the tattoo on it."I suppose there's no sense in hiding it. But Pops, don't keep back anything from us either."

Hohenheim glanced at Edward. "Tomorrow is the 'Promised Day', right?" Edward reminded. The 'Promised Day' is this special day Edward has been talking about for months that has to do with the Homunculi and this big plan that they have.

"Yeah," Hohenheim sighed. "I'll tell you everything."

*~*~*~*~*~

Nightfall came and as all the people came closer to town for the light, we sat around Hohenheim's campfire and he began to tell us what we needed to know; his entire past. He was a slave of Xerxes where he met Father in his weakened form and together they eradicated the entire populuse of Xerxes, excluding Hohenheim.

Darius, Heinkel, and I had shocked looks on our faces, Edward yanked his hair in despair, and Greeling kept a straight face. "I guess you can't accept this as readily as Alphonse did," Hohenheim sighed. "He probably has his own take on some of it, but he accepted it. I am the Philosopher's Stone that you wanted. Will you use me?